Helping others one shoebox at a time

Published 2:00 am, Saturday, November 12, 2011

Photo: LISA SATAYUT | For The Daily News

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From left, sisters Sienna, 6, and Megan, 10, Mattichak pull toys out from a shoebox they will soon donate to Operation Christmas Child. The two have been collecting shoeboxes filled with Christmas toys to give to children living in other countries since Megan was 3 years old. Sienna started helping as she got older. This year for Megan’s birthday she asked her friends to bring her toy-filled shoeboxes instead of a birthday present. less

From left, sisters Sienna, 6, and Megan, 10, Mattichak pull toys out from a shoebox they will soon donate to Operation Christmas Child. The two have been collecting shoeboxes filled with Christmas toys to give ... more

Photo: LISA SATAYUT | For The Daily News

Helping others one shoebox at a time

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Sisters Megan and Sienna Mattichak have big plans this Sunday.

The two are headed to the Midland Evangelical Free Church to drop off 16 shoeboxes packed with new toys.

Megan recently celebrated her 10th birthday and had just one request for her party guests: Instead of bringing birthday gifts for her, she asked her friends to bring shoebox’s filled with toys that she could give as Christmas presents to less fortunate children living in other countries.

“We have all these toys and we take them for granted but people in other countries don’t have much,” Megan, 10, said as she rifled through an overflowing shoebox at her home.

Megan is taking part in Operation Christmas Child. This is a worldwide children’s project of Samaritan’s Purse where the gift-filled shoeboxes are delivered to children in more than 100 countries.

This isn’t the first time Megan has participated in the project. Not only did she also collect shoeboxes at her 7th birthday party, Megan and her parents Stephen Mattichak and Moon Chung Mattichak, have been participating in Operation Christmas Child every Christmas since Megan was three years old.

Sienna, 6, started helping as she got older. She said she especially likes shopping for the gifts with her parents to fill the green and red shoeboxes.

“It’s really fun and you get to choose presents for other people in other countries,” she said.

Besides toys, personal care items like toothbrushes and toothpaste are included in the shoeboxes

Megan has learned to appreciate what she has in life and never takes anything for granted. Not even toothpaste.

“They’re just so surprised and happy when they see it in the box,” she said of the recipients.

She also includes a letter in the box. And, on two occasions she has received a letter in return from the recipient.

“It’s fun to get letters back from kids that the boxes go to. They send pictures back too,” she said.

Megan has one of the letters with her and reads it aloud. It is dated May 2010.

“Dear Megan, my name is Belinda. I’m 14 years old. I have the luck to become your friend. I live in Togo. I have enjoyed your gifts very much. I’m not very good in English because my official language is French,” Megan read.

“I felt really happy,” she said when she received the letter in the mail last year.

“It feels good to have a friend from a far away country. It just feels really cool and you get to see sort of how they live,” she said.

On this day, the two sisters are going through the boxes pulling out toys and trying to rearrange them so more toys can fit inside. Megan likes packing the boxes to make sure everything is neatly tucked inside.

“You get to help make sure everything is packed tightly in there and then you get to wrap them up,” she said.

Sienna likes packing the shoeboxes too but has a harder time getting everything to fit inside.

“It’s really hard to close the boxes,” Sienna said.

Moon said she felt very proud of Megan for wanting to collect shoeboxes for her birthday this year. And, they didn’t have to ask her.

“I didn’t say a word to her and she just brought it up,” Moon said.

“I was really excited and proud. She said to me, ‘Aren’t we going to do the shoeboxes this year for my birthday?’”

Megan said her friends really like the idea of bringing her shoeboxes filled with toys for her birthday.

“They think it’s cool,” she said.

Megan has since become a trend-setter. Her friends have started to ask for donations to certain charities for their birthday presents, too.

“My friend had a birthday party where we gave money to an endangered monkey,” she said.

“Another one we donated to endangered species like big cats, like lions and tigers and cheetahs.”

Moon said they started participating in Operation Christmas Child to teach their children about the true meaning of Christmas starting from a young age.

“My husband and I thought that this was a great opportunity to help teach our children about the true meaning of Christmas and demonstrate this in a tangible manner: The importance of love, sharing, caring, compassion and concern for other people and kids and to show others Christ’s love for us,” Moon said.

In 2011, Operation Christmas Child will reach more than 8.5 million children.

National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child is Nov. 14 through Nov. 21

The Midland Evangelical Free Church is the local collection site located at 7221 N Jefferson Ave. Besides toys, other items collected are school supplies, personal care items, books, socks, candy, coloring books and crayons.